Valiant
by sablize
Summary: Once upon a time, there was a rose, a memory, and a wolf. Damon has a chance meeting with someone who might just change everything.
1. The Rose

**Title: **Valiant: Chapter 1, The Rose (1/3)

**Author: **sablize

**Character/Pairing: **Damon/Rose, Doctor/Rose (Tyler)

**Rating:** T

**Summary:** Once upon a time, there was a rose, a memory, and a wolf. Damon has a chance meeting with someone who might just change everything.

**Spoilers:** TVD: 2x11, 2x12; DW: Journey's End, The End of Time

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing!

**Author's Notes: **Enjoy the strangest crossover ever, and one I've wanted to do for ages. Set sometime after The Descent and after Journey's End. Includes immortal-Bad-Wolf!Rose. Don't be daunted by the crossover, it's told in the POV of Damon so it doesn't make much sense to him either(;

It's three in the afternoon, and Damon needs to get out of the house.

The boarding house is suffocating these days. Even with frequent visitors, it feels empty, like all the air's been sucked out. He blames it on the loss of Rose's presence. Then he berates himself for feeling again, and pours himself another drink.

Today, he goes to the Grill.

It's almost empty at this time in the day; a few people eating a late lunch are scattered around, and even fewer people have taken seats at the bar, which Damon sits at the far end of and orders a drink.

Then, an unfamiliar woman enters. And sits down right beside him.

The bartender walks over. "I'll have whatever he's having," she says in a thick British accent, pointing to his drink.

"Can I see some ID?" the bartender asks with a raised eyebrow. The girl is young.

The woman fishes out a bright pink wallet from her pocket and opens it in front of the bartender, who then says quickly, "Of course, of course. On the house, in fact."

Damon can't help it. "What did you show him?"

The woman glances at the wallet. All he can see from beside her is a blank piece of paper inside.

"Apparently, I'm a famous pop star touring in America." She pockets it with a frown, and takes a sip of the drink the bartender has just placed in front of her.

Damon studies the woman. Her hair is bright blonde, though he can tell it's dyed because her roots are dark. Her eyes are hazel and surrounded by a halo of mascara, and her lips are wide and full. She's wearing a black leather jacket, a blue t-shirt, jeans, and a pair of white Converse. An unremarkable person, really, but something about her doesn't feel right.

"So, what are you doing in Mystic Falls?" His voice carries a hint of warning.

"Oh, is that where I am?" she replies, sounding genuinely surprised. The feeling of wrongness about her gets stronger.

He sets his drink down, turns to face her. "Who the hell are you?"

She studies him for a moment, lips parted, before finally saying, "Rose."

Damon winces and turns back to his drink.

"You alright?"

"I had a…" he pauses, searching for a word good enough. He finds none, so he finishes, "friend. Her name was Rose."

Rose throws on a sympathetic smile immediately, as if she's already guessed what happened, and says in a quiet voice, "I'm sorry."

"You don't know the half of it."

Rose takes a sip of her drink, thoughtful. But the look she casts him under her long lashes seems to say _I know both halves_, and it scares him. He wonders if she's a vampire. He drains his drink and decides he doesn't care.

He stands. "You should get out of this town."

"Why?" she asks, mirroring his movements.

"Why are you even _here_, anyways?" he counters.

Rose shrugs nonchalantly, but Damon doesn't miss the sadness that suddenly clouds her eyes. "I'm trying to get back to the man I love. Again. I just stumbled here."

"Then why don't you stumble back?" His voice is low, dangerous; hopefully it's enough to scare her off. He doesn't need any more Roses dying on him. He walks away, leaving her hazel eyes downcast, fingering something in her pocket.

He's halfway across the parking lot before her voice reaches him, calling, desperate.

"_I could help you save your friend._"

Damon whips around to face her, and she strides over. He's already made up his mind before she's standing in front of him.

"I appreciate it," he says, voice tight, "but nothing can save Rose. Trust me, I tried."

He walks away, but stops when she says, "This thing," (he turns around to see her holding the object that was in her pocket, a large yellow button) "it isn't just a teleport. Hell, it isn't even confined to Earth. It can travel in time."

She says the last few words with such heavy significance, Damon wonders if she's lost, crazy, or both.

Rose steps forward again, places her hands on his shoulders. Hazel eyes meet icy blue.

"I could help you."

"_Why_?" he asks, eyes not daring to leave her young face.

She gives him a small half-smile. "Because I _can_."

His eyes search her face, trying to gouge exactly how much he should trust this strange woman. He has no idea who she really is or _what_ she really is—not human, surely—and she could be an absolute nut for all he knew. But there was just something about her, through all her wrongness, that felt right.

_A Child of Time_, says a voice in his head. It's not his; in fact, it sounds like the woman's, only deeper, laced with power and a million voices. _You can trust my Child_.

Oh, screw it all. He makes his decision.

"Come with me."


	2. The Memory

**Title: **Valiant: Chapter 2, The Memory (2/3)

**Author: **sablize

**Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries (TV series)

**Character/Pairing: **Damon/Rose, Doctor/Rose (Tyler)

**Rating:** T

**Summary:** Once upon a time, there was a rose, a memory, and a wolf. Damon has a chance meeting with someone who might just change everything.

**Spoilers:** TVD: 2x11, 2x12; DW: Journey's End

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing!

**Author's Notes: **Second chapter of my strange fix-it crossover. This chapter does contain a few Doctor Who references, but again, don't be daunted xD

"Where've you been?" is Stefan's first question when Damon walks in the door, Rose trailing behind him.

"Not killing Jules, don't worry. Bitch deserves it though." He brushes past his brother and into the living room, where he pours himself another drink.

Stefan eyes Rose, who smiles and says, "I'm Rose. Damon, uh… well, I'll let him explain it."

Damon does no such thing. "Call Elena," he says, tossing his brother his phone. "This'll probably be important."

"How important?"

"_Very_ important, brother." He turns to Rose. "You wanted to use the computer?"

She nods, and he points her into a small office with a laptop. She leaves the two brothers with a small, self-conscious smile and another nod.

Stefan sighs. "What are you doing, Damon?"

"That's for me to know and you to dot dot dot," Damon says with a smirk, recalling words from the past. Simpler times, with no Roses and no werewolves, but he doesn't want to think about that. "I'll fill you in when Elena gets here."

When the doorbell rings, Damon lets Stefan answer the door as he goes off in search of Blonde-Rose (as he's taken to calling her). She's still sitting at the computer, and her eyes are strangely wet.

She notices him, wipes her eyes and sniffles once, then gives a shaky little laugh. "Well, I knew this place felt right. I'm home." At Damon's questioning look, she adds, "In the right universe. I was trapped in a parallel one."

Damon shakes his head in disbelief, but moves behind her and asks, "How do you know?"

She points at the screen in front of her, where two names are highlighted: _Jacqueline Tyler, Rose Tyler_. Damon's eyes flick up to the top of the screen. The header read _Torchwood One, Canary Wharf: List of the Dead_.

"You're dead?"

"Technically," she says, closing the webpage. "Like I said, parallel universe. Changes a lot of things."

He watches her go and can't help but think, _What the hell have I gotten myself into?_

Elena demands answers. So the three of them are sitting in the living room—Rose is pacing— and Damon explains the situation.

"Damon, I know—" she starts, but he cuts her off.

"No, Elena, you _don't_ know. Sooner or later, you're going to have to face Klaus, and you need strong vampires behind you." What a bad excuse. Well, he can't help it if he wants Rose back.

"What I don't understand," Stefan says, drawing Blonde-Rose's eyes to him, "is, well, how are you going to do this?"

Rose smiles and pulls the yellow… button thing from her pocket. "Simple. I go back in time, stop Damon from going into the bar and picking a fight with Jules, then heal the wound."

"Wound?" asks Elena.

"Well, changing time so someone lives is a very… dangerous business. Trust me," Rose says, smile fading. "But I have enough handle on timelines to heal the wound and stop the Reapers from appearing and ending the human race."

Stefan looks unimpressed. "You're telling us you can _travel in time_?"

As if on a cue, the front door opens, and in steps Blonde-Rose. Another one. The trio's eyes flicker between the two identical people in disbelief.

"How…" starts Damon, but the question dies off as the Rose in front of him presses her yellow button and disappears in a flash of light. The other one steps forward to take her place, picking a leaf out of her hair.

"I've been hiding in your bushes for the past hour," she says. "Stupid thing transported me back too far."

Elena presses a hand to her forehead, mouth open in shock. Finally, she gets out, "So, you can travel in time. And you're going to save Rose. By going back in time. And telling Damon to go home, so Jules won't try to bite him and Rose won't die."

"Yep."

Elena shakes her head incredulously and glances at Damon. "You meet the strangest people."

Damon just smirks. Then his face turns serious. "You're really going to do this?"

Rose smiles again. "Yes." There is a long pause. "I need some of your memories first, before I go. So I can convince you."

Damon stands, and Rose places her fingertips gently on his temples. He shoves his most recent memories to the forefront of his mind. It hurts. God, it hurts, like his heart's shattering all over again. Soon, however, Rose steps away. Her eyes are somber and she gives him another sympathetic smile.

She starts walking towards the door.

"Wait, where are you going?" Elena asks, thoroughly confused.

"Transporting back that far takes a lot of energy," Rose explains. "I don't want to end up taking you with me. That would be bad." She smiles, opens the front door, and leaves.

Damon, after a second, runs after her. She's stopped halfway down the walk, the button in her hands.

"Rose," he says, keeping his distance. There's just one last thing he has to ask. "How did you know?"

She understands exactly what he means. "Your timelines. I could see them and the point where they diverged, and you were on the worse path." She pauses. "I've got all of space and time and all eternity to search for the Doctor. I might as well help as many people as I can along the way."

Damon nods and steps away, just to be safe. "Thank you."

She smiles then, the tip of her tongue poking from between her teeth. Then, in a flash of brilliant light, she's gone.


	3. The Wolf

**Title: **Valiant: Chapter 3, The Wolf (3/3)

**Author: **sablize

**Character/Pairing: **Damon/Rose, Doctor/Rose (Tyler)

**Rating:** T

**Summary:** Once upon a time, there was a rose, a memory, and a wolf. Damon has a chance meeting with someone who might just change everything.

**Spoilers:** TVD: 2x11, 2x12; DW: Journey's End, The End of Time

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing!

**Author's Notes: **Last chapter. Contains a short epilogue at the end.

Damon parks his car in the first available space he sees. Of course, there would be someone new in town to stir things up. The last thing he wanted to worry about was Mason Lockwood, especially when he was already dead.

As he's heading towards the Grill's doors, however, a blonde woman steps in front of him.

"You can't go in there," she says. She's got a heavy British accent, he notices. He tries not to think of someone else who has a British accent, and fails miserably.

"To hell I can't," Damon replies, trying to step around her.

"No, really," she says with a small, nervous laugh. "You can't."

Damon eyes the girl. She's young—in her twenties, maybe—with pleading hazel eyes with too much mascara, and full lips set on a face with a jaw too wide. Unremarkable, really. He grabs her wrists and attempts to shove her out of the way, but she stands like a rock, unwilling to move.

"I'm from the future, and I'm here to tell you that you can't go in there."

He laughs at that, but his voice is filled with venom. "Go back to the nuthouse, blondie, and leave me in peace."

She rips her wrists from his grasp and places her fingers on his temples before he can stop her, and suddenly memories are ripping through his head. _He opens the door, feels a presence; there's a cry of "Damon!" and Rose shoves him out of the way; he pulls down the shoulder of her robe to find the bite has not healed after all; "Rose, Rose, it's me, it's Damon!"; he holds her in his arms and drives the stake through her heart, as a single tear makes its way down his face; he lets Jessica get away, because what's the fun in hunting prey that doesn't run; he's torn, broken; he goes to the Grill and meets a blonde girl with a British accent, who tells him she can help_.

The memories slow to a trickle, and eventually he can see the blonde girl's face again, her eyes wide, filled with a mixture of hope and desperation.

"If you went into the Grill, _that's_ what would happen," she says softly. "Go home, Damon. Leave Jules for another day."

The memories sink like a rock in the pit of his stomach, and he stays rooted in place, trying to reason with himself. Part of him wants to go into the Grill anyways, but the other part of him, the more humane part of him, wants to do exactly as this strange girl says. The thought that Rose would come back was crazy, but here it was, all played out for him. If he walked in there, Rose would die. Because of him.

He turns around and heads to his car.

"One thing though," he says to the girl, hand on the car door. "Who are you, really?"

She gives him a sad little smile. "Lots of things. Rose Tyler. The Valiant Child, the Abomination. A Child of Time." She pauses, then says one last name that sets his heart racing.

"The Bad Wolf."

Searching her face, he knows she's not a werewolf. What kind of werewolf would help a vampire, anyways? No, the Bad Wolf is something bigger, something not even he can understand. Something he's not sure he _wants_ to understand.

The girl smiles at him, then pulls a large yellow button from her pocket. As she disappears, a few tendrils of golden light swirl around the spot where she stood. Suddenly, the whole world flashes gold in front of Damon's eyes.

He blinks the spots away from his vision and the feeling of dread lessens from his stomach. He takes another peek at the memories she gave him only to find they've lost their clarity, they feel wrong in his head, and he knows that this strange woman has fixed the timeline. Or at least that's what his gut feeling tells him, so he goes along with it.

On the way home, he calls Alaric and tells him to leave Jules alone.

When Rose comes home late that night, the first thing he does is crush her to him, breathing in her scent. She jokes and apologizes for running, and Damon tells her what would've happened. What the blonde girl did. She sobers up after that.

They spend the rest of the night enjoying each other's presence, and Rose falls asleep on his chest.

—

He doesn't expect to see the blonde girl ever again. However, one August afternoon, when Klaus is gone, Stefan and Elena and the rest of the gang have gone off to college, and Damon and Rose are home, holding down the fort, they decide to go out. With no set destination in mind, they head for downtown Mystic Falls, hands clasped, lapis lazuli rings shining in the sunlight.

A sudden noise breaks through the calm of the streets, almost like the sound of an engine. Damon seems to be the only one who notices; he stops, pulling Rose back with him. After a few tense seconds, Damon spots a very familiar blonde head on the other side of the street.

Her hazel eyes meet his, and she tugs on the arm of the man she's walking with; he's young, with floppy brown hair, a tweed jacket, and a bowtie. Strange, but not unremarkable, not if he was with her. She was the most remarkable person in the world.

"Doctor," Blonde-Rose says, knowing Damon could hear, "why don't we go somewhere else?" The man turns towards her, curious, and she adds, "I think everything's alright here."

He follows her gaze to Damon and Rose, still standing with hands entwined. He nods, smiles, turns around, and walks into a blue Police Box—something Damon hadn't noticed before. Rose gives him a wave and a small smile, then she, too, disappears into the box. With the whir of engines, the box disappears too. Rose and Damon stare in disbelief as it vanishes.

"Was that…?"

"Yeah," Damon replies, swallowing the lump in his throat. The immense amount of things that could've (and did, in some alternate reality) gone wrong hang over him like a shroud for a second. He shakes it off. Everyone was alive and happy, Klaus was gone, the sun was shining, and Rose was beside him. For once, everything had worked out for Damon Salvatore.

"Come on, Rosebud," he says at length, tugging on her hand. "Let's go home."


End file.
